Lead Story
Chayan Caps Chairman’s Night In $5.6m Coup
By Trevor Marshallsea
@ANZ_News
Promising two-year-old Chayan (I Am Invincible) became the second most expensive horse sold at a breeding stock auction in Australia at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale on Monday night.
The Annabel and Rob Archibald trained filly - a Group 2 winner from just four starts and was eighth as favourite in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) - was eventually knocked down to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $5.6 million, after a tense 10-minute bidding duel with Yulong for the last lot of the night.
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A day after his 49th birthday, businessman and former Singapore Turf Club steward Eric Koh received a timely gift when selling Chayan, who he bought at Magic Millions Gold Coast 16 months ago for $250,000.
Her sale price, on top of the $335,000 prize money she won for Koh in a career highlighted by her 2.97 length Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), places her second on the Australian breeding stock sales pecking order behind star sprinter Imperatriz (I Am Invincible), bought by Yulong for $6.6m at the 2024 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
While those two prices represent a boon for Yarraman Park’s triple champion sire I Am Invincible, Chayan’s sale also completed a glorious double for Longwood Thoroughbred Farm.
Michael Christian’s Victorian stud bred and raised Chayan, as well as the mare whose 2025 Chairman’s Sale record price of $4.2m she eclipsed on Thursday night - Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai).
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While Chayan will likely have much racing ahead of her, Magnier indicated it was likely her first cover would come from Super Seth (Dundeel), who Coolmore bought from Waikato Stud for more than $50 million in February.
Added as one of 11 supplementary lots, sold from Newgate Farm’s draft, and scheduled with a flair for the dramatic as the last of 115 fillies and mares offered, Chayan was comfortably the top lot on the glamour night of the Australian auction scene.
Second highest price on the night was star sprinter Benedetta - daughter of I Am Invincible’s son and studmate Hellbent - who was bought by Yulong for $1.9m and held the clubhouse lead for most of the night after selling from Widden Stud’s draft as Lot 35.
Yulong also bought the third-highest priced offering in triple New Zealand Group 1 winner Provence (Savabeel), the lone offering from the Newgate-Milan Park consignment as Lot 100, for $1.8 million.
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Zhang Yuesheng’s empire emerged as the leading buyer, snapping up eight mares for a combined $8.45 million. Magnier leapt into second in making Chayan his second purchase of the night, with an aggregate of $6.4 million.
Those two heavy hitters left a long gap to third place buyer, Japan’s Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farms, who bought three lots for a total of $2.4 million.
Outside those rankings the figures underlined what was a relatively difficult sale, with the impacts of global economic troubles evident again, much as they were at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
This Chairman’s sale would have always faced a strong challenge to emulate last year’s extraordinary edition, in which an extremely star-studded catalogue drove all key metrics to exceptional levels.
Sales Statistics
2026 |
2025 |
|
|---|---|---|
Catalogued |
115 |
96 |
Offered |
108 |
89 |
Sold |
79 (73%) |
77 (87%) |
Aggregate |
$39,085,000 (-28.20%) |
$54,430,000 |
Average |
$494,747 (-30.00%) |
$706,883 |
Median |
$300,000 (-25.00%) |
$400,000 |
Top Lot |
$5,600,000 (+33.30%) |
$4,200,000 |
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Bella Nipotina and Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni) both eclipsed the auction’s previous record - fetching $4.2 million and $3.8 million respectively, while 14 lots fetched seven figures, smashing the sale’s previous high of nine from each of the prior two years.
Against that backdrop, and with added pressure from economic uncertainty following the war on Iran, the 2026 Chairman’s Sale finished well down on last year across all key measures, with its gross and clearance rate landing much closer to 2024 levels than the exceptional 2025 edition.
At the close of business, the average sat at $495,000, down from $707,000, while the median was $300,000, down from $400,000. The clearance rate of 73 per cent compared unfavourably to last year’s 87 per cent, and the gross was $39.08 million - 28 per cent below 2025’s figure of $54.43 million, despite two more lots having been sold (79/77). Nine seven-figure lots were moved, down from last year’s 14.
While the 2026 catalogue may have lacked the depth of 2025’s, the clear conclusion was global economic instability had had a palpable impact, including a knock-on effect for breeders and prospective buyers who endured a softer than expected Easter yearling sale.
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Inglis will still take encouragement from the broader progress the Chairman’s Sale has made over the past decade. Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch also pointed out the relatively high number of pregnant mares offered on Thursday night will have weighed on the clearance rate .
While pleased with the appeal of a sale which he believed would convince more owners to sell at Chairman’s in future, Hutch said: “I think we probably saw some evidence of what was in play at Easter this evening”.
“The necessary confidence for people just to step in and go wasn’t there,” he said. “There are plenty of challenges in the market but they shouldn’t be pertinent factors on a night light like this. We’re talking about high end quality stuff. Ultimately, it comes down to confidence, and people stepping in to bid the number they need to bid to buy mares.
“I think that’s an inevitable consequence of the Easter Yearling Sale playing out the way it played out.”
Hutch said had the Chairman’s been held immediately after the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale - which began the weekend the US and Israel started attacking Iran - it would have been “outrageously” successful.
“We finalised the catalogue between the end of the Classic sale and the start of Easter yearling sale inspections,” he said. “At that time, this looked an appealing catalogue in the context of what was likely to be brought to market this year. Obviously the market felt that way about plenty of the stock, just not all of it.
“Certain vendors came out of Easter, maybe not having turned over as much as they’d anticipated. That having a knock-on effect at the breeding stock sales - I’d say that’s a contributing factor.
“I’d have liked it to have been better in parts, but am I satisfied to have gotten to where we’ve gotten too? Yeah, I am.”
Chairman’s 2026 was given a major and unusual boost by its last lot among more than 100 seasoned mares - a two-year-old.
Koh said Chayan’s sale came about through a “three-pronged” campaign of convincing - from an old friend, from Inglis, and from Newgate Farm’s Henry Field. It had also been spurred after lucrative private offers for the filly from Yulong boss Zhang.
“When she was favourite in the Slipper, I told everybody she’s a keeper and I’m looking to breed eventually,” said Koh, who owns 13 more racehorses in Australia, and “a few” others in Ireland, Malaysia and South Korea.
“But then I was put in a corner by a dear friend (who suggested selling). Nicky Wong from Inglis rang and said the team from Inglis had a good meeting, and they think she could potentially be one of the best selling two-year-old fillies.
“Then Henry Field rang - ever convincing Henry, and I was put in a corner. Between friends and dear friends, I put her in the sale.”
He added he had told Zhang, his friend of 16 years, that it was “a bit awkward to talk dollars and cents with you”, and decided the fairest way to sell the filly would be at auction.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said of the sale. “I came here thinking maybe $3.6 million, that’ll be the top. Beyond $4 million, then $5 million, to $5.6 million, was unbelievable.”
Magnier said he was delighted to have executed one of the toughest tricks in breeding - beating Yulong at a sale.
“Yulong know what they’re doing; there were smart people on her,” Magnier said. “Annabel and Rob Archibald have been ringing me about this filly for a while. They like her a lot, and she looks very smart. Hopefully she’s got good upside.
“When we’ve got stallions going very well like Home Affairs, Shinzo, Switzerland, you have to go out and find the mares for them.
“We’ll give her to Rob and Annabel and they can dictate (Chayan’s racing future). At the end of the day we’d have Super Seth probably marked down for her when she’s finished racing.”
The sale was also a triumph for Longwood Thoroughbred Farm.
“To have two horses who we bred and were raised on the farm in Bella Nipotina and Chayan top last year’s and this year’s sale, for a combined $9.8 million, yes that’s something that makes us very proud,” an emotional Michael Christian told ANZ News.
“For them to develop into such valuable animals is just wonderful. It’s a tough game, and we’re competing against some of the biggest studs in the world, so to have our brand on these two is something that feels extremely satisfying.”
Rising seven-year-old Benedetta - a triple stakes winner including of the SAJC The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) - is likely headed for a first mating this spring with Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Devil Night (Extreme Choice). The rising four-year-old will stand his first season at Yulong’s newly acquired Segenhoe Stud in the Hunter Valley this spring, at a fee to be announced.
“I think she’ll let down into a beautiful mare,” Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said.
“She’s obviously in race condition now, but she’s got a lot of quality about her and they’ll be a nice match. Devil Night is a very good looking horse, so I think he’ll suit a lot of mares.
“It’ll be nice to be able to give him a mare of her quality in her first year at stud. Mr Zhang is all about supporting these young stallions and giving them the best start at stud.
“She’s one of the better mares that’s raced over the past 24 months. We already owned a little share in her so it’s great to get the remainder of her.”
Fairgray said six-year-old Provence (Savabeel) would likely be a cover for Private Harry (Harry Angel) when he commences stud duties at Yulong’s newly bought Hunter Valley property, which the group’s general manager Jun Zhang told ANZ News would be known as “New Segenhoe”.
“You don’t find many Savabeel mares who’ve won three Group 1 races, so to get her is fantastic,” Fairgray said.
“I’d be leaning towards Private Harry for her at this stage. Just physically they’re a good match. She probably needs a little bit of substance. She’s quite an athletic filly, and he’ll probably give her a little bit of substance.”
Yulong bought three other seven-figures lots including four-year-old Listed winner and Group 1 placegetter Snow In May (The Autumn Sun) for $1.05m, from Segenhoe’s draft.
They paid Newgate the same amount for 12-year-old Hazlebrook (Hinchinbrook) - a city placegetter and lower level stakes producer whose value was boosted by being in-foal to Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
Yulong also went to a neat $1 million for nine-year-old Moldova (Snitzel), dam of New Zealand Group 1 winner Captured By Love (Written Tycoon), in-foal to Home Affairs (I Am Invincible).
“It’s about adding quality and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Fairgray, whose ever-expanding group will retire some 20 mares off the track for the coming breeding season.
“Getting the higher end mares is the key now. We see time and time again it’s the stakes performers who produce stakes performers.”
Yoshida paid Widden $1.4 million for the evening’s fourth-highest lot, the supplementary four-year-old Philia (All Too Hard), who’s won a Group 2 and a Listed.
And Stefan Pardi’s Equine Growth Fund paid Newgate $1.2 million for Kiki Express (Sepoy), a six-year-old Melbourne Listed winner whose filly first foal by Anamoe (Street Boss) fetched $800,000 this year.
Like Hazlebrook, the mare’s value was enhanced by being in-foal to Extreme Choice.
“I thought she’d cost $1.5 million, or $1.7 million,” Pardi said of Kiki Express. “I couldn’t believe it’s been knocked down to me, really.
“In-foal to Extreme Choice, who averaged $1.6 million at the Easter sale, and she’s a great mare who produces good foals - I think it’s exceptional buying.”
While a share, believed to be 1.67 per cent, in Extreme Choice offered on the night failed to meet reserve at a top bid of $900,000, the impact of Newgate’s sub-fertile sensation was reflected in the three mares sold in-foal to him.
The third, nine-year-old triple city winner Sizzlefly (Sizzling) was bought from Newgate’s consignment for $600,000 by Mitchell Bloodstock.
Newgate topped the vendors by aggregates with 15 lots fetching $12.85 million, and was second on average ($857,000) to Widden, whose four sellers averaged $962,500.
I Am Invincible was leading sire by aggregate, with five sold lots realising a total of $7.01 million and an average of $1.4 million.
